Gay Liberation in Canada:
A Socialist Perspective
The Socialist Perspective for Gay Liberation
This statement was adopted by the August 1976
plenum of the Central Committee of the League for Socialist Action/Ligue
Socialists Ouvriere. The Political Committee’s original draft statement
(IDB Vol. 11. No. 6) was edited to incorporate the results of the
LSA/LSO membership discussion and the plenum decisions.
This statement has three aims:
-
to reaffirm the League’s rejection of all
forms of discrimination and oppression suffered by homosexuals and
our unconditional support of the struggles of gays for full civil
and human rights;
-
to assess briefly the current stage of the
gay liberation movement;
-
to present guidelines for the League’s
participation in the gay liberation movement.
The gay liberation movement is a product of the
current radicalization. Gays are becoming conscious that their problems
are social in origin, a product of specific social institutions, and
attitudes flowing from these institutions. They are organizing to fight
politically against that oppression.
Since the gay movement began, it has established
itself in every major Canadian city. Many campuses, for example, now
have gay liberation organizations which function as recognized campus
clubs. While it is still small, the gay movement has had a significant
impact on prevailing social attitudes. It has begun to win a greater
acceptance of homosexuality. While anti-gay prejudice is widespread and
deep-rooted, it is no longer unchallenged.
The gay liberation movement has advanced a
political program of powerful democratic demands for gay rights, and its
protest actions have won a wide hearing.
A typical indication of this is the case of Doug
Wilson, a University of Saskatchewan lecturer fighting a case of job
discrimination. He has received widespread support both on and off
campus, including some student demonstrations on his behalf.
The growth of the gay movement shows the depth
of the radicalization, which challenges the most basic prejudices,
including the ‘natural inferiority of women’ and the ‘unnatural’
character of homosexuality.
Capitalist society represses natural human sexual
impulses. The sexual behavior imposed through the family and other
capitalist institutions severely damages all sexual relationships.
Individuals are incapable of following their sexual inclinations
spontaneously, free of guilt, fear, and neurosis.
The repression of homosexual behavior is an
aspect of this sexual oppression. It reinforces the approved model of
heterosexual, monogamous relationships, confined as much as possible to
the framework of the nuclear family. The gay liberation movement weakens
the grip of this repressive institution.
Gay oppression and anti-gay prejudice are deeply
embedded in Canada, as in all capitalist countries. Gays are also
oppressed in post-capitalist states like the Soviet Union and China.
Anti-gay hysteria is the common coin of
right-wing and fascist groups. Gays face discrimination in housing,
employment, and immigration; they are subject to harassment and
physical brutality. Efforts are made to exclude gays from many
important areas of employment, and to admit them to others only on
condition that they keep secret their sexual orientation.
In many cases, homosexual acts are explicitly
illegal. In Canada homosexual relations between “consenting adults” were
allowed under the 1969 amendments to the Criminal Code, but the age of
consent was established at twenty-one years, significantly higher than
the age limit for heterosexual acts. This means that a significant
proportion of homosexuals, those under twenty-one, are criminals for
exercising their sexual preference.
Faced with this situation, most gays try to hide
their sexuality, living in constant fear that their real sexual
preference will be detected.
The gay liberation movement rejects these vicious
forms of anti-gay discrimination. In growing numbers, homosexuals reject
the fear and self-hatred they have been forced to live with, and affirm
their pride in their sexuality. They are beginning to conclude that they
are not guilty — society is guilty, for its persecution of gays.
The League welcomes the development of the gay
liberation movement, and unconditionally supports’ its struggle for full
civil and human rights for gays. We completely reject all reactionary
“theories” that maintain homosexuality to be an “illness” or
“perversion.”
We support gays, as we support every oppressed
group struggling for its basic democratic and human rights. We
understand the power of such struggles.
The gay liberation movement challenges
fundamental propositions of bourgeois morality, and its struggles are
directed against the political institutions that uphold morality:
governments, the church, the courts, the educational system. It thus
tends to put in question the legitimacy of these institutions and of the
social system they represent.
The bourgeoisie may well make concessions under
the pressure of the gay liberation movement. But no such gains can be
secure in a decaying capitalist system, whose rulers are increasingly
hostile to democratic rights in every form.
The existence of gay oppression underlines the
fundamental character of the system, rotten through with exploitation,
oppression, and poverty, defending and justifying these abominations and
deepening human misery. Awareness of gay oppression helps people to draw
the conclusion that the capitalist system as a whole must be overthrown,
and that a socialist society is necessary.
This understanding raises in turn the question of
how a widespread consciousness of the need for socialism can be created,
of the role of the working class in this process, and of the need for a
revolutionary leadership.
Within this context any movement of the oppressed
demanding change has a very great potential. The fight for gay rights
will help gay activists come to understand the need for socialist
revolution, and throw their lot in with the working class in the
struggle against capitalist rule. We can also expect that the working
class, which is now shot through with anti-gay prejudice, can be won
over time to support the struggle of gays for equal rights, and will
make this goal its own. The demands and aspirations of gays, and the gay
movement itself will be a component part of the revolutionary process in
this country.
As a revolutionary organization with the goal of
leading the working class in the fight for state power, the League takes
positions on questions of program, strategy, and tactics for the
political struggle. It does not adopt positions on questions of culture,
science, or sexuality.
Consequently, the LSA/LSO does not take any stand
on the essential character or value of homosexuality.
What is our position on discrimination and
prejudice against gays? What demands should the gay liberation movement
put forward? What forms of action should it adopt to achieve its goals?
What is its relationship to other social struggles? These are the kinds
of questions on which we, as a movement, should express our opinion.
We often utilize scientific conclusions to help
further the struggles of the oppressed. Many League members are active
in scientific or cultural fields. But it is not the League’s task to
develop scientific positions, or to pass judgment on scientific debates.
Even on scientific questions where there is a well-established position
of Marxism, as in the debate among anthropologists on the matriarchy as
a stage of human evolution — where we have an interest in ensuring that
the Marxist view receives a hearing — we do not ask the League
membership to vote for this or that position and the League as such does
not take a stand.
Similarly our movement rejects quack racist
theories of white superiority, but we do not take a stand on this or
that scientific view of human heredity or of the nature of physical and
racial differentiation in the human race.
Questions of the nature or value of
homosexuality, or on sexual orientation and life-style fall into this
category.
An additional factor is the absence of an
authoritatively established Marxist point of view on questions of the
nature of sexuality. The facts on questions of the nature of human
sexual orientation are not clearly established, and the discussion of
this topic is not far advanced.
We reject the prevailing bourgeois views that
homosexuality is “sick” or “perverted” or a form of “deviant behavior.”
We have nothing but contempt for these so-called theories whose sole
function is to rationalize this or that form of social oppression. But
we do not counterpose to them an “LSA/LSO theory” of homosexuality, or
of sexuality in general.
We do not have to take a vote on the nature of
homosexuality to reject all forms of anti-gay discrimination, and to
identify completely with the aims of the gay liberation movement. This
is what we have done. We welcome the entry onto the political arena of
the gay movement. We express our solidarity with the growth of gay
pride. We support all the struggles of gays for equal rights. We view
this movement as an important and dynamic new component of the
radicalization. We want to be part of it and to put forward our views on
how it can best be built.
Current Stage of the Gay Movement
Two kinds of organizations compose the gay
liberation movement. A minority of groups conduct public protest actions
for civil rights for gays — the most advanced and politically conscious
groups. A broader range of groups are socially oriented — homophile
associations and gay community centers which provide services for gays,
and opportunities for gays to meet one another. There are also gay
churches in several Canadian cities.
The gay liberation movement has attained a
considerable level of organization and cross-country coordination.
This is largely due to the leadership of the action oriented groups,
which have launched a number of civil rights and defense campaigns and
have succeeded to some extent, in involving a broader range of gay
organizations however reluctantly on their part.
Some of these activities include: actions in
opposition to the federal government Green Paper on immigration; the
organization of several gay pride marches in different cities; pickets
protesting censorship of gay publications and advertisements; campaigns
in several provinces demanding protection for homosexuals under
provincial human rights acts; and two important campaigns protesting job
discrimination, the cases of Doug Wilson in Saskatchewan and John Damien
in Ontario.
Three cross-Canada conferences of the organized
gay liberation movement have now been held.
The year 1975 saw the establishment of the
National Gay Rights Coalition, a cross-country organization representing
the overwhelming majority of organized gay groups in the country. It is
defined as a civil rights organization with two main objectives: the
removal of all federal legislation discriminating against gays, and the
implementation of legislation guaranteeing full civil rights for gays.
These are promising developments. Groups favoring
political action have carried out a number of excellent campaigns, and
laid the basis for a cross-country movement, achieving a good deal of
unity around these initiatives. Experience will show whether this
direction is maintained and whether the action-oriented leadership that
has promoted it continues to develop.
Our strategy
We have advocated a strategy for gay
liberationists which is fundamentally an application of the mass action
strategy we have fought for in other arenas including the antiwar
movement and the women’s liberation movement.
This strategy has several elements:
-
there is an observable and growing
consciousness among gays that they are oppressed by this society,
and at the same time a growing willingness to struggle against that
oppression;
-
gay oppression is concretized in legislated
anti-gay discrimination, in the Criminal Code, the Immigration Act,
and elsewhere; and in the absence of any protection of gays
alongside protective legislation for other oppressed groups, as in
the provincial Human Rights Acts;
-
gays who are becoming aware of the need to
organize and fight will respond to, and can be mobilized around,
concrete campaigns which single out specific aspects of anti-gay
discrimination, and put forward demands that meet the needs of gays
and around which they can rally;
-
through united campaigns and public,
mass-oriented actions, gays can wrest concessions from the ruling
class which can alleviate some of the worst aspects of anti-gay
discrimination, and develop the confidence of gays in their ability
to struggle and make gains;
-
such campaigns can enable gays to gain the
widest support for their demands from labor, women’s liberation,
civil rights and left organizations, and from public opinion in
general;
-
the struggle for full civil rights for gays
can be a profoundly educational one for gay activists. It can help
them to understand the nature of the ruling class and why it fights
so hard to maintain the oppression of gays and others. It can bring
gays into contact with other struggles for social change and help
them link up with these struggles. It can bring gays into contact
with revolutionary ideas, and allow them to develop an
understanding of the need for a socialist society, as the solution
to gay oppression and all forms of oppression.
Recent actions of the gay movement coincide with
this approach in many ways.
League members work actively in the gay movement,
as partisans and participants in its struggles. They put forward the
League’s views on how the gay movement can best be built, and they
present the League’s revolutionary socialist positions.
Our participation in the gay movement should be
governed by the same guidelines as those for any area of work. Our
central task in this period is to carry out revolutionary propaganda
with the aim of building the LSA/LSO as the future mass revolutionary
party of the working class. We want to put forward our program, extend
the influence of the League, and win new recruits. This is our aim in
the gay liberation movement as elsewhere.
To carry this out, we should develop the use of
our educational tools. Our press should continue to cover the most
important events in the gay rights struggle. We should look for
opportunities to carry articles of a more educational nature —
interviews with gay rights leaders, and features on important struggles
as they develop. Some branches have utilized their forum program as a
means of developing connections with the gay movement and presenting our
views on gay liberation. We want to take part in the conferences and
other important actions of the gay movement.
In addition, branches may want to consider
intervening in gay organizations in their cities — that is, assigning a
comrade or comrades to work within local gay organizations. Branch
leaderships should decide this taking into account the other tasks
before the branch, the possibilities of recruitment and other gains for
the League, and the cadre resources the branch has at its disposal.
Where we do assign fractions, our approach is the same as elsewhere: we
want to work as serious builders of the organization, assuming whatever
responsibility is necessary to carry out our tasks and win the
confidence of the people we are working with.
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